How do I disable SSH login for the root user?

Applies to: All DV

Difficulty: Medium

Time Needed: 10

Tools Required: SSH, root access, vi knowledge

Overview

With a good password, you can limit your exposure to a brute force attack. However, it may still be possible. Although technically unsupported by (mt) Media Temple, the following instructions are for disabling the root user and allowing another user to assume the root users permissions. This adds another layer of security because an additional username and password must now be entered before gaining the root user privileges.

Before you disable root logins you should add an administrative user that can ssh into the server and become root with su.

READ ME FIRST

This article is provided as a courtesy. Installing, configuring, and troubleshooting third-party applications is outside the scope of support provided by (mt) Media Temple. Please take a moment to review the Statement of Support.

Instructions

NOTE:

In the following example, we are using admin for the username. This is just a example and can be replaced with any username you wish to use.

Add the user. In the following example, we will use the user name admin. The command adduser will automatically create the user, initial group, and home directory.